In order to
win, you must leave your name or username (how to contact you) below in the
comment section, and explain how you would use it.This will automatically qualify, and enter you in the
drawing. Please don’t expect an individual acknowledgement of your
entries in this drawing.

My gift
opportunity will only be offered to those who are 18 years of age or older.

The
deadline to enter for this gift offer is Thursday, July 27th at 5:00PM (CST).
All entries will be placed in a bowl and one name will be randomly drawn from
the bowl.

If your
name is picked as the winner, I will post your name on my blog in the morning
of Friday, July 28th along with my e-mail address.

The person
selected will have 4 business days to respond to me, by e-mail, with their
physical mailing address. The gift will be mailed to the address provided at no
cost to you.

If I
receive no response from the selected party, their entry will be null (void),
and I will be required to pick another person.

Only 1 entry
per blog site please, multiple entries will be deleted.

Because
I care about my Blogger friends, I’ve purchased the VOODOO Tactical Universal
Surgical Kit Complete and one lucky friend will receive it as a gift.

FYI, I am
not getting paid to promote this product or advertise for their company.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

The one day we get to sleep in just a little, the
clock rang at 6:00AM.Time to rise and
shine…everyone in the house was up, dressed, had coffee, and breakfast.Then we were all out the door, heading over
to the shop to pull equipment together, and prep it for our early morning chores.Yes, a family affair of weed whacking,
cutting grass, chopping small trees, and unloading branches from the
trailer.All done early before the
storms rolled in.

We even moved some red clay away from the French
drains so the rain wouldn’t push it into the ditch.You
scratch your heads wondering how we moved the clay; well I’ll tell you it wasn’t
by hand.

After doing research, getting advice from friends (y’all
know who you are), and trying several tractors (Kubota, Mahindra, Kiyoti, LS, New
Holland, John Deere, and Case) we decided to go with LS.

The dealer where we purchased our LS tractor gave us
the best deal around for a larger tractor and parts including service, and
warranty.We purchased the LS 4140 with a bucket, box
blade, and a brush hog.

Here it is………………I have to ask……do you think my
tractor’s sexy??

*****

While cutting back trees, Bulldog Man and I found
grapes!!!!We found all kinds of grapes,
growing along the fence line out on the east side of our property.We don’t know if they’re wild grapes, or grapes
planted by the previous owner.I’m going
to need to do some research before I start to pick any grapes.I know they’re 5 things I need to look for in
research.The shape of the leaves (heart
shaped and jagged), the number of seeds in the grape, the color of the stem,
the color of the flower and the tendrils.

This is an exciting find; I hope they’re not the poisonous
kind.

*****

I also found another type of spider…………………………

A VW Bug Spider!!!!I thought this was funny, and took a picture to share with you.This spider is on the side of one of the
local churches.

*****

As I close this post today, I wanted to share; I’ll
be hosting another give-away relating to survival later this week…..stay tuned!

Thursday, July 6, 2017

The gravel’s been laid at the bottom of the trench;
pipes have been glued together, and laid at a slight angle on top of the gravel,
to ensure the water will drain down the pipe and into our fish pond. We even
setup one of the gutters to run down a spout into a pipe in the ground, which in
the end will be totally connected to the French Drain. This will take the rain
water away from the house and prevent issues with the foundation.Now we’re ready for the next step to add more
gravel to the trench and on top of the pipe.

A slight delay causes us to push this project off
the delay; Bulldog Man needs to leave for work in Salt Lake City, Utah for a
week.

The second delay, severe thunder and lightning storms.
We’ll have to pick this project up again, once the sun comes back out and the
ground is dry.

*****

A nice surprise; Kymber and Jambaloney over at the Framboise
Manor Blog sent us these amazing Poppies as a housewarming
gift.We decided to place them around
our tornado shelter……because they’re pretty, they signify success in following
your dreams, and most of all remind us of those military soldiers who lost
their lives protecting us, and fighting for our freedoms…..Remember Flanders
Fields (WW1).

These Poppies have touched us in an amazing way,
thank you so much Kymber and Jambaloney…we love y’all.

Oh Kymber, there was a little bird just sitting in
one of the poppies taking a little bath :-)

*****

Tank needed longer leads on the welder mounted to
his flatbed truck.Instead of purchasing
200 foot leads separately from a welding shop, he went ahead and purchased 400
feet of wire wholesale and created his own 200 foot leads. He also purchased a
mechanical reel to attach directly to his truck, to wrap and ground the leads,
making it easier for working large jobs.Bulldog Man helped tank pull, split, and setup the wire on the reel
properly.

*****

The making of refrigerator pickles…..I used a spice
package by Ball and McCormick (like the ones in my last give-away) in order to
make bread and butter pickles.I only
really needed to come up with the vinegar, sugar, and water.The rest was quiet simple, no processing in a
pressure canner, or a water bath.My
bottles went directly in the refrigerator and will be totally eaten up by one
person in our house….ME!!!!

*****

It breaks my heart to say this; we had to give up
our sweet little girl, Zeva.We had her
for only 2 days and trained her to bark to go outside to do her business, and
introduced her to walking on a leash.She was very intelligent, and a sweet German shepherd.Our plan was to train her as a security protection
dog, for out on the farm.But first,
Beans (our rescued Chihuahua) needed to give his blessings.We introduced the 2 dogs and they both seemed
to be fine with one another.Once home,
Beans started to become distant, with us, and Zeva.He sat on his bed and anytime Zeva would get
near him he would leave a wide berth.He
started closing down………he would give a dead stare, not move, eat, or
drink.

What to do….we acted fast! Beans was here first (he’s our baby), and we
rescued him.We weren’t replacing him;
we were bringing him a friend, a companion.Obviously this was too much for
Beans to handle (maybe because Zeva was a puppy).We brought Zeva back to her original owner
(lovely breeder who lived on a ranch full of animals).She took Zeva back and totally
understood.Zeva was adopted that
afternoon by a family who recently lost their female shepherd.They kept the name we gave her, and will send
us pictures.

Beans is still acting a bit strange over the
situation.Tomorrow we go to the Vet.,
to make sure everything’s okay.

*****

We recently found several worm webs in trees around
our driveway.This time of year it’s
usually the Eastern Tent Caterpillar (appears in late spring/early summer) which
looks very similar to the Web Worm (they appear in the fall).These worms can stress your trees, making
them susceptible to diseases, other bugs, and drought.

The easiest way to get rid of these worms and their
webs are to spray them with bug spray.We prefer to cut the branch down and burn the entire branch, web, eggs,
and worms.

As for the tree’s with branches 30+ feet up in the air……they’ll have
to just be left alone because…. I’m not climbing my happy A$$ up these trees to
cut limbs/branches down at my age. There’s
just no way I can do that now!!!!

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